Fantasy dramedy. Directed by Michel Gondry. With Romain Duris, Audrey Tautou. In French with English subtitles. (Not rated. 94 minutes.)

It doesn't take long to figure out that "Mood Indigo," a fantasy dramedy about a bumbling Parisian guy whose wife gets sick, is going to be a tedious cinematic experience.

At the beginning, we see Colin (Romain Duris) eating breakfast, but instead of getting to know him in any meaningful way, we are bombarded with special effects and animation, whether it's flying dishes, faucet-loving eels, otherworldly food, sprouting plants, whatever. It's meant to be magical; unfortunately, it quickly gets annoying.

We keep hoping the film, so intent on showing us how imaginative it is, will finally calm down and do something. It never does.

It's as if director Michel Gondry has channeled his inner Michael Bay ("Transformers: Age of Extinction"), filling his film with effects that have no effect at all. We see great creativity (and art direction) at work, but there are no characters or story to go along with it. This is a film with no reason for being.

The talented Gondry is the man behind "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and the Noam Chomsky documentary "Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?" Both of these were wonderfully whimsical works, but unlike "Mood," they had clever concepts and intellectual firepower.

The original "Mood," released in France, was 131 minutes, compared with the mercifully trimmed 94-minute version here. Even so, you'll be begging for it to end.

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